fine detail with fluorescent?????

Posted on Thu, 7 Nov 2002 at 10:58

The biggest problem in our screen room is exposure of fine detail with our fluorescent bulb exposure unit. I know that fluorescent units are not ideal for fine detail or half tones but until I can convince "the powers that be" to buy us a metal halide unit, I don't have much choice. We already underexpose (gasp!!!) which presents all kinds of problems from delamination on press to stubborn reclaiming. I have tried thinner emulsion coating, emulsions that are "supposedly" faster and have even resorted to putting Scotch tape on the back side of the positive as a filter. For small print runs these tricks work ok but for bigger runs our screens break down. If anyone has any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated.
Thanx!
Amy =)

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Comments

Anonymous says: Amy, Many know that a point light source is most preferred however flourescent tubes are used by many with great results.
I did'nt read anyone suggesting that your vacuum could be the problem, If your ...

Amy, Many know that a point light source is most preferred however flourescent tubes are used by many with great results.
I did'nt read anyone suggesting that your vacuum could be the problem, If your positive is good and opaque and your image emulsion on your film is on the correct side, where your placing emulsion to emulsion and your vacuum is pulling strong and your blanket is a dark color, then you should be able to get as good a screen as anyone. Be sure your cooling fan in your exposure unit is working.

Anonymous says: The vacuum doesn't seem to be a problem. The manufacturer suggests bleeder cords but only if we can not see the outline of the positive through the vacuum blanket and screen mesh when the vacuum is drawn. ...

The vacuum doesn't seem to be a problem. The manufacturer suggests bleeder cords but only if we can not see the outline of the positive through the vacuum blanket and screen mesh when the vacuum is drawn. We can see the outline of the positive and even the tape on the positive so I'm assuming that this is not the problem. I think we are just asking too much of our exposure unit, trying to make it do things it has not been designed to do. Our true exposure time for 280/40 yellow mesh with a 2 on 2 coating is 9 minutes. We cut that back to 7 minutes to get some of our detail to come out. And by detail I mean 10 to 14 point lettering and half tones. Since posting my original question, we have changed our coating to 1 on 1 with a face coat and our true exposure time now is 6.5 minutes which we have in turn lowered to 5 minutes to get the half tones to come out. This has helped alot but we are still underexposing our screens. I think that all I can do is try to get the emulsion coating as thin as possible and expose for as little time as possible and pray that the emulsion stays on the screen. Or I can sell my soul to Nazdar for 3 years and get a proper exposure unit (haha). I still haven't decided what to do with that offer but it gets more and more tempting every day.
Amy =)

Anonymous says: I work very close with Nazdar myself and have been very pleased with their dedication and commitment to us as far as this kind of thing, I get about 95% of all my supplies from them and if I have a problem ...

I work very close with Nazdar myself and have been very pleased with their dedication and commitment to us as far as this kind of thing, I get about 95% of all my supplies from them and if I have a problem they are always on top of it at a drop of the hat. I do recommend accepting the offer I have the unit they are talking about and am very pleased.

You didn't say what your EOM is but with 280/40 mesh,8-10 micron EOM,RZ of 9 and with the right emulsion and exposing unit you should have a 40-60 light unit exp. time even on fine line half tone images

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